Wow.  Three months went by fast...again.

I hope you have been doing well.  I hope you had an awesome holiday season and an exciting but not tiring New Year!

Too much has happened in the last three month so today I will focus in on Christmas and my New Year's holiday....

I use to love watching a Charlie Brown Christmas or How the Grinch Stole Christmas on TV when I was a kid in the USA but this year in Japan guess what was on TV!

Although only about 1% of Japanese claim to be Christians, Christmas is none the less one of the most popular foreign holidaysin Japan with cakes and teeny tiny Christmas trees. 

(Christmas is not a national holiday in Japan.)  

Winter vacation usually starts from the 29th and goes on till about the 4th.  (It is a bit longer for students though.)

I took a pretty long holiday.

The 23rd to today!

:-)

Here's what else I ate during the New Year holiday:

in Nagasaki

"Osechi" is a boxed meal that is filled with dishes that are made to last for a few days so that housewives don't have to be constantly cooking...we are supposed to let the kitchen rest... but you know how things are....it really doesn't end up that way!

The white bowls with the white round rice cakes on top are called "ozoni".  This is a soup that you put the rice cakes in.  Each region in Japan has their own flavors.  Osaka is miso based.  The city where my  mother is from (Fukuoka) has a clear fish/seaweed broth and in Nagasaki (where my husband is from) it is made with a seaweed and chicken broth and has lots of vegetables in it...which is actually quite unique in Japan.

I still have not mastered the Nagasaki style...

Rice cakes also show up as decorations with little mikan (like tangerines) on top.

The above are the decorations my mom had.

The flowers must include"sho-chiku-bai":

Pine-Bamboo-Plum blossoms (or Japanese apricot)

It is hard to see all three but they are there!

Speaking of New Year decorations, 2012 is the year of the dragon and this is my dragon at home!

This year I have made a motto:

Keep it simple.

and my NewYear's resolution is:

Do!

Combining the two means lots more de-cluttering this year!

I can't believe no matter how much 2stuff" I throw away there's still tons more.

Today I threw away old yellowed cards and envelopes and organized the ones that I have like so:

I had so many categories that I couldn't find the right cards when I needed them the most....I'd just keep buying and buying....

(the postcard with the girl in the kimono is something I bought in Kyoto but I do not know who painted it....)

If anybody out there would like to trade postcards please let me know!

Also, if you have any questions about my de-cluttering experience please leave a comment.  I will be posting more about my motto "keep it simple"soon!

Until then, I hope you have a wonderful January and a happy New Year!

strawberry sweets and my latest picks from the news...

The latest news in Japan, as of my writing of this blog (Kyodo English) is focused on the radioactive water found inside the buildings adjacent to the nuclear reactors in Fukushima.

!?

This is serious.  The level is much higher than it should be and it is not getting any lower. Which means something is leaking...  However, we are being asked to stay calm since this is still indoors and is not an immediate threat to those outside of the building...PLUS there are multiple reports coming out as I type about the level and how high it is or isn't... There is still so much confusion and TEPCO is not making things better with the way they provide the information.

?!

As optimistic as I can be, this disturbs me not just because of the seriousness and chaotic information flow. The real threat is invisible. Although Japan has a history that shows us the devastating effects of radioactivity, it did not deter some of the people living in the power plant area from rushing back to their homes.

For people who had to evacuate quickly and empty handed, it has been a stressful 2 weeks. Some 50 or so residents from the evacuated areas went back to their homes to gather a few of their belongings and to feed their cattle (I can't imagine how bewildered the animals must be).
The residents have all been re-evacuated by the Japanese self defense force.

...

In the meantime, there have been demonstrations outside of the Tokyo Power Company calling for all the nuclear power plants in Japan to close.  This isn't being featured on the news but I have seen the tweets and a bit on the *NHK world news website.


*For the NHK (the Japan Broadcasting Company) world news website in English with the latest updates and radio on demand (click here).

Also please check out:

Marie Mutsuki Mockett has written another beautiful piece which can be read on the New Yorker blog, about her family in Japan.  You can read it here.

Sooooooo...

What am I doing between the news updates (that I try as much as possible to stay away from)?
Well, Monday through Friday was work at the office.  Since things are rather normal in our part of the country it all seems unreal when we can't deliver goods as fast as we usually can, due to the power shortages in Tokyo.  Most people are understanding.

And now for the relaxing part...
On Saturday, I had waffles...with whipped cream, custard...and yes, strawberries.

Good stuff!

As if that were not enough...today I had...

cream roll cake with strawberries

and I bought books...

Ape House by Sara Gruen and Heart of a Samurai by Margi Preus

The CDs were bought a month ago but I finally got them into my i-pod...

and I think I forgot to post this picture I took at my mom's house earlier this year...

Look for my fingers at the bottom of the picture for comparisons (my fingers are not gigantic)!

This is a strawberry.
:-)